Society and Colours Awards 2021 Round-Up

This week, I had the absolute pleasure of hosting both Society and Colours Awards 2021 to celebrate the success of our student groups as they have fought through one of the most challenging years to date. As a student, this event was the absolute highlight of my year every single year, and it always held such memorable experiences for me, so to present it was honestly the biggest privilege I have had and I could not feel more grateful to have been in this position this year.

Although we were unable to celebrate in person, it was still so important to me to be able to recognise groups’ hard work and fantastic achievements and there was no way I was going to allow the pandemic to get in the way of that! 

Every single group, whether sports club or society, has overcome challenges and trials this year like never before, beating the odds by adapting to deliver activity in such unique ways. This has engaged students and not only given them a community where they can meet others but also provided an important outlet at times where it was so crucial.

This really inspired me and encouraged me to persevere and think outside the box to instead hold virtual awards on the SU Instagram, with a range of story videos, posts, and IGTVs revealing our winners of individual and group awards. 

I just want to say another huge thank you to all of the student groups this year. Even in a year where you could have quite easily just given up, thank you for fighting and inspiring me every step of the way with your hard work and complete dedication. This was so not the year any of us envisaged, and it definitely wasn’t what I expected when I was elected over a year ago now, but I couldn’t have wished for a more extraordinary experience. 

I may be biased, but I do believe that you are what make Royal Holloway. You create our communities and showcase our talent, you provide a safe space for thousands of students and influence their entire university experience. And for that reason, regardless of whether you won an award, you should be so incredibly proud of yourselves and I hope you know just how honoured I am to have been a part of that journey.

Watch the events back

If you missed the awards being handed out on the night, you can catch up by checking out the 'Highlights' tab on our Instagram channel, while all of the speeches for our group (and Vice President's Cup) award winners can be watched back on IGTV.

Watch on IGTV

The winners

Vice President’s Cup 

Society Awards - Kayleigh Fryer

Colours Awards - Charlotte Wassell

Both our Vice President’s Cup winners have been absolutely fantastic this year and it has been incredible working with them both as they clearly demonstrate a complete dedication to making the environment their fellow students inhabit as enjoyable and engaging as possible.

However, there are a couple of students who also deserve a mention for their hugely comparable efforts.

Firstly, for the Society Awards Vice President’s Cup, both Evie Skyrme and Josh Miskin were extremely close contenders and I would like to personally thank them for their efforts not only in their student groups across the years but in supporting me in their roles as SSO Executive members this past year. They truly have demonstrated outstanding dedication to Student Opportunities and have constantly brought such an engaged and welcoming attitude to everything they get involved in, making working with them a real pleasure.

Similarly, Mattie Redmond deserves a mention for coming in a close second for the Colours Awards Vice President’s Cup. She has made real efforts to make a difference to Netball this year as well as working to widen student engagement in sport. Quick to get involved wherever possible, Mattie has a capacity to brighten any situation and improve the enjoyment of other individuals within Student Opportunities.

Society Awards - Group Awards

Fundraising and Campaigning - Ballroom & Latin

Sarah Parker Remond Inclusion and Accessibility - LGBT+

Best Online Event - Absolute Harmony

Best New Society - Ahlulbayt

Innovation in Adversity - Humans vs Zombies

Digital Community - PIR

Society of the Year - Games

Colours Awards - Group Awards

Fundraising and Campaigning - Hockey

Sophie Christiansen Shield - Netball

Innovation in Adversity - Athletics

Digital Community - Trampolining

Club of the Year - Lacrosse

Photo: @rh_lacrosse Instagram

This year, only our winners of each category were announced due to the time restrictions of virtual awards. However, as I have previously mentioned, every single group has been fantastic this year and the nominations were of such a high quality that making a decision was not easy. There were a few groups that have worked to such a high standard and missed out on an award by the tiniest amount. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few highly commended nominations.

Liberal Arts Society were a group that were noticed across the board in almost every award category but were, unfortunately, just surpassed by the smallest margin each time. From their ratification just two years ago, they have gone from strength to strength and not allowed this year to get in the way of their progression.

Photography Society have really shown innovation this year to run a wide range of sessions using a mixture of online platforms. Working hard to provide their members with amazing photography opportunities, they held online theory or advice sessions, screen capture practical sessions, a YouTube channel, and brand new editing sessions!

Musical Theatre Society and Dance Society both demonstrated huge amounts of effort this year, particularly focussing on the wellbeing of their members and providing countless virtual opportunities to get involved in a welcoming community. Computing Society really raised the bar of their annual hackathon, reaching record numbers of 500 signups from around the world, hosting just under 1,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, and 2,000 unique viewers over the event. 

Facing the difficulties of their activity not having much of a virtual or ‘at home’ alternative, Swimming did extremely well this year to still create important communities for students and their fundraising challenge running 27 miles in 27 days as a reflection of the 27% of students that report a mental health problem whilst at university was a real stand-out moment, raising an amazing £1400!

Fitness also showed incredible perseverance this year, fighting to be effective for students in a time when a whole range of free online exercise opportunities appeared as a result of the pandemic almost overnight.

And shoutout to Squash who, in response to the squash courts being broken into and vandalised in November, took it upon themselves to fundraise as a way of funding the repair, and replacing both stolen kit and club-owned property. Without this fundraising, it is unlikely the club would have been able to return to full functionality until an insurance enquiry and investigation had taken place. They really worked together to show an amazing whole-club and wider community effort.

Society Awards - Individual Awards

Crest winners - Bryony O’Hare (MTS), Daniel Woods (HvZ), Eden Singh (PIR), Esme Pearson-Brown (Drama), Evie Skyrme (Liberal Arts), Hadley Wehner (Savoy Opera), Holly Gray (Holloway Players), Jade Venter (Pole & Aerial Fitness), James Shannon (Drama & Holloway Players), Josh Miskin (Absolute Harmony), Joshua Sawyer (Computing), Molly Rafferty (Absolute Harmony), Rebecca Allinson (Photography), Tom Macey (Absolute Harmony), Yuji Aoyama (Games).

Colours Awards - Individual Awards

Crest winners - Alex Parry (Men’s Football), Charlotte Besaucele (Basketball), Ed Hill (Men’s Football), Ella Joyce (Lacrosse), Emily Gale (Fencing), Holly Hanson (Netball), Julia Jeker (Athletics & Cross Country), Lauren Sutcliffe (Riding), Lewis Dean (Hockey), Madeline Tredgett (Riding), Marcus Messer (Fencing), Matilda Redmond (Netball), Natalia Pettersson (Women’s Football), Sophie Beckwith (Women’s Rugby), Zak Wheeler (Fencing)

Full Colours - Alice Carter-Champion (Women’s Rugby), Daniel Petts (Lacrosse), Hannah Batty (Netball), Jenna Bray (Fencing), Joe Watson (Men’s Football), Kane Powell (Lacrosse), Kate Wells (Women’s Football), Katie Kitchen (Women’s Rugby), Matilda Redmond (Netball), Sam Neale (Trampolining)

Club Colours 

Athletics & Cross Country - Bence Horanyi, Callum Lepley, Toby Rowlands, Andrew Woods

Cheerleading - Aidan Greenwold, Eimear Loughran, Amy Parker-Bratt, Emily Romero-Shaw, Anya Walker

Fencing - Jacob Franks, Emily Gale, Daniel Herbert, Trystan Lloyd, Hannah O'Reilly

Hockey - Annabel Frost, Emma Wolfendale

Lacrosse - Henry Green, Carlota Kiner, Madeleine Mackilligin, Cameron Mellon, Emily Todd

Men’s Football - Johannes Arnold, Jack Scott

Netball - Reem Abusana, Zahra Crane, Amy Starrett

Riding - Sarah Coldwell, Ellie Hyland, Mona Lamotte

Swimming - Charlotte Dawe, Emelie Engles, Megan Stockford

Trampolining - Sophia D'Souza, Robert Jones, Ashley Penfold, Maddy Shadrach

Women’s Football - Jamie-Lee Clarke, Kirsty Graham, Holly McGroary, Gabriella Murtagh, Kate Ryan

Women’s Rugby - Jess Duffy, Elizabeth Harvey-Hawes, Kim Sherwin, Emily Wadsworth